On How Level Scaling Impacts Game Immersion

In general, I dislike the practice of level-scaling in games that have a level-up mechanic. However, I am willing to concede that in some games the practice is necessary, but more needs to be done to make sure that level-scaling does not detract from the overall immersion and consistency of the game.

My main source of enjoyment in games with a levelling mechanic is the sense of catharsis I get from wiping the floor with enemies that used to give me trouble. It is an incredibly rewarding feeling for me that through my hard work and perseverance, I get a very obvious reward in the form of gameplay benefits.

I think the main draw of levelling and upgrading for me is that in a gameplay sense, the impact of my hard work is instantly tangible. Which means that on the topic of level scaling, I am heavily drawn to the opinion that it is generally a bad thing, as it removes entirely that sense of rewarding the effort players put in to build their characters.

My first argument was exactly that detailed previously; that level scaling removes the incentive for players to use the level up system. My question is this: why bother with a level-up system at all if the game is simply going to upgrade its challenge to render those stats meaningless? Of course, you could argue that this allows for different classes or styles of gameplay to emerge, but of course, if you simply removed the need to level up to keep pace with improving stats on your enemies, then the player could play different classes as they like; it would be just as easy to play as a mage class or a fighter class. When level scaling is put in a game it removes the need for levelling-up at all except for a pointless stats arms-race between the player and the computer, and in many cases, there is little point to even having a level-up mechanic in such games if there is no tangible reward for smart character building (outside of exploits). Where the whole point of levelling-up to become stronger effectively doesn’t make you stronger, then why are you doing it?

Another way in which level scaling can mess up a game is perhaps what is most important to a lot of gamers, and something that relates directly to one of my previous blog posts: immersion. In that post, I wrote about how immersion and authenticity is about making sure that elements make sense within the context of the world, no matter how crazy those elements are, if they’re authentic to the game, they add to the immersion. Nothing breaks immersion for me more than level scaling, because of how insane it is that the final bosses of such games (which are often world-destroying calamities) are just as powerful as a giant crab that you fought at the start of the game. How am I supposed to get any sense of how powerful this boss is when he is not that much more powerful than every other boss I fought before him? Some games try to alleviate this by having the level scaling set so the final boss truly is more powerful than other enemies, but I cite a bad example of this from Diablo III, where I can have just as much trouble with the titular boss and the Lord of Hell Itself, as I did with a mid-range magic enemy that had the Arcane Enchantment trait. The problem is not that I’m fighting a demon because fighting a demon is unrealistic, the problem is that in this game world, I’m supposed to believe that this enemy is a big deal, when I actually found it harder to beat a mini-boss that I encountered right at the beginning of the game.

Even worse, level-scaling tends to reward the player for cheating. Where is the sense of catharsis from bettering yourself to beat the game, when you will only ever be as relatively strong as you are from level one? It would be far more fun if after a few hours you could simply mow down those enemies that gave you trouble at the start to show how far you’ve come, but that doesn’t happen. Instead, many gamers would (and have) opted to simply exploit little weaknesses in how the game tracks its stats in order to achieve that level of power; look at the Skyrim enchantment glitch being used to create weapons with over 9000 damage. Video game players are the people who will spend hours playing your game, so they will have no problem spending hours learning how to circumvent your systems to get what they want. If level scaling is as easily broken as it is in Skyrim, then I see little point to it as it also breaks immersion through legitimising cheating and exploits.

In addition to this is the fact that level scaling instantly takes away all sense of progression from the game. You can never feel the intensity of those last few moments of the climax, when all hope seems lost and you can only fight desperately hoping that you will be lucky enough to survive, and instead that feeling is replaced with what usually is a lame final boss that differs only in that he uses fancier special effects than the last boss you faced, and you’re rewarded with a cutscene where the characters, not you, get to experience those intense last moments.

The best argument against level scaling, however, comes from Dark Souls. This was a game that didn’t level scale to any large extent by my memory. However, instead you were placed in an open world with enemies of different levels of power in different areas. If you wandered into a high level area as a low level player, then you most often got destroyed by enemies a million times more powerful than you, but then by playing through the less difficult areas you gradually and slowly built up a sense of power, but never enough to just breeze through. Even the lowest-level enemies could kill you if you weren’t careful, but usually by endgame, not only were your stats at a much higher level, but your gameplay skills, thanks to the fantastically-implemented level design that involved the most rewarding use of backtracking in a game I’ve seen to date, had grown to the point where for most players returning to the first area and fighting those enemies became like swatting flies. Even without level-scaling, Dark Souls is not only seen as ‘hard enough’ (for those developers worried about how to maintain the challenge for seasoned players), but is seen by many as a brutally-hard, unforgiving experience. The lack of level-scaling adds to the atmosphere; the later areas of the game look terrifying and, thanks to how well-designed the pacing is in the game, are terrifying to play through. Any gamer that’s played Dark Souls recalls with terror the tense experience of trekking through the Catacombs with those horrific, huge quadrupedal skeletons that tore you apart. You truly feel as if, yes this enemy is definitely scarier and to be feared far more than that giant rat I fought back in the sewers. It is the opposite of the Diablo III experience, where now the danger of fighting enemies is correct and appropriate as to what the game is trying to sell to us as a player. This adds to that sense of immersion in the story because you feel as if the enemies can live up to the promise of their preceding reputations.

There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. In a game like Diablo III, while that level scaling breaks immersion, there is another sense in that it expands the game. As it is built around replayability and grinding for endlessly better and better gear, it does make sense to me that the game takes the form of that endless grind in gameplay terms. It is just a shame that the story doesn’t mesh well at all and breaks immersion as a result of poor pacing and level scaling. I think the best way forward is a hybrid system, where it is possible to truly see improvements from your level-ups, while still maintaining challenge. 

Appropriately, given previous posts in my blog, Resident Evil 4 stands as what I think is truly the best example of this, because as an excellent YouTube video by Mark Brown pointed out to me, there is actually difficulty-scaling in the game, but it is played so well and so subtly, that many gamers, myself included, had no idea that this was actually going on. I think that is the best way forward; to make the player feel like they are indeed making progress, instead of keeping enemies at the same uniform strength, make those small adjustments so that a player does not even notice that there is a scaling system at all. It is a common practice in computing that many systems are hidden behind the scenes as not to be viewed by the user, which is something I find appropriate for the point I am making.

As for my aversion to level scaling, while my example of Dark Souls is truly expertly-paced, I concede that not many games will ever be able to hit those notes so perfectly again, and I am happy to be content with a level scaling system as long as it makes some effort to feel authentic to add to the overall immersion of the experience. While my rant has made it seem as if level scaling is the enemy, the truth is it is just another tool, and as gaming is continually evolving it seems that this tool will see more widespread use as we try to balance for the right difficulty settings, and I’m certainly not sure I feel great about that practice given that I feel there are more bad examples of level-scaling in games than good ones, and in games with upgrading systems that did away with scaling entirely, the examples have often resulted in some of the most well-received games in the industry.

(Sorry for my lengthy absence. My work commitments were more stressful than I had thought, and I'm still trying to work out a good update schedule that will work for me given I'm having to balance this with my work and life. I'm going to keep updating as regularly as I can!)